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[Gervassen]

I've no problems with IOUs to be repaid later, merely problems with killing our men because we didn't requisition what we need in a grave situation. The faster we assault the keep, the sooner every townsman is safe. We can go through a range of exhortation approaches, but in the end, we let them know that cooperation is mandatory for the good of everyone involved.

We prepped the city with murder rumours for this reason. Of course the new Count makes the murder accusation, because they need to hear it from him, and when better to make the charge than after this fiasco of wounding the mayor? Also, I'm not even sure Aaron Foles was that hated by his people. He was a pitiful ineffective drunk, not an archvillain.

Also, shoot first at the ambush. This is war. Uriel says that they're Owenists, and he kinda leads the military and knows these men. We also have the Guard Captain who would know whether they're staunch Owenists. I trust there are no objections to an ambush, if these sources confirm that they are unturnable. (Already did actually, but let's ask again.) They could be outsiders from Owen's home county, who have few other prospects if he loses the claim. Justice is not a persuasive argument to those with vested interest. Good men might die because we didn't want to get the drop on a pack of filthy Owenists.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I've no problems with IOUs to be repaid later, merely problems with killing our men because we didn't requisition what we need in a grave situation. The faster we assault the keep, the sooner every townsman is safe. We can go through a range of exhortation approaches, but in the end, we let them know that cooperation is mandatory for the good of everyone involved.

Agreed.

Also, shoot first at the ambush. This is war. Uriel says that they're Owenists, and he kinda leads the military and knows these men. We also have the Guard Captain who would know whether they're staunch Owenists. I trust there are no objections to an ambush, if these sources confirm that they are unturnable. (Already did actually, but let's ask again.) They could be outsiders from Owen's home county, who have few other prospects if he loses the claim. Justice is not a persuasive argument to those with vested interest. Good men might die because we didn't want to get the drop on a pack of filthy Owenists.

You'd rather let good men die because you're afraid they're unconvertable Owenists?

[Gervassen]

You'd rather let good men die because you're afraid they're unconvertable Owenists?

Our men are good men, sworn to our good name. The rest of humanity is an indifferent multitude. I would kill a hundred innocents to save a single man that has pledged his life in our cause. That bargain is merely the proper reciprocity that a true liege lord should always give as a reward to the loyalty of his followers. How much less should I cry when armed men who answered the Owenist alarm are cut down before they can raise their swords and bows?

These are our supporters that we risk, many having followed us since before the Sea Raiders. Will anyone here tell me they value faceless Owenist scum better than the men who stood guard at our manor in which our young son scampers about? Our men alone are worth sparing. To hell with all other men on earth, and that right speedily.

[Gervassen]

I'm not particularly diplomatic, so I'm just going to come out and say it...

 I suspect certain people in this thread of being Owenists. I have my eye on all of you! Lay aside your follies now, for Owenism shall be torn out and expelled from here, root and branch. Swear fealty now to the one true Count, and ye shall have mercy!

[GreatWyrmGold]

Hey now, hey now, no need to go all Inquisitorial on us. I'm just saying...how many men would we lose by not firing first? We outnumber them and can easily make the terrain be in our advantage; we don't need to kill on sight.

[Gervassen]

Okay, if the site can be prepped to ensure overwhelming advantage and the opposing force is small enough to control, then I suppose that we can halt them first, and Uriel can issue them an order to throw down their arms. But surprise and panic will necessarily be reduced if we stop them and allow them to talk first, letting them draw swords, nock bows and survey our positions. Hopefully it doesn't cost us even one extra man. That's far much more than I would willingly spend on mercy given to an enemy.

[GreatWyrmGold]

We're in a town, with buildings to put archers in. We have archers. We have enough control of the town to selectively evacuate parts of the town and block off certain roads, if we need to herd them to one specific part of town. They're some random guards who, if your analysis is correct, all completely support a generally disliked Count rumored to have murdered the last one and known to have fired several of their colleagues, so there can't be that many. We can make it work.

[mcclay]

I'm not particularly diplomatic, so I'm just going to come out and say it...

 I suspect certain people in this thread of being Owenists. I have my eye on all of you! Lay aside your follies now, for Owenism shall be torn out and expelled from here, root and branch. Swear fealty now to the one true Count, and ye shall have mercy!

Hah! there you have got me wrong! The Cult of Emery thrives withing in these lands and soon we shall rise up and rule this world!

[Truean]

Our men alone are worth sparing. To hell with all other men on earth, and that right speedily.

Everyone comes from somewhere. Our men were not always our men; we were once someone else's man. Still are in a sense.

Other prospects for them if Owen dies: offer them some. It's basically how we've gotten everything we have so far -- offering people prospects. What's Justice got to do with it? There isn't any justice here; we aren't having a trial to my knowledge. After reading what's been going on, I'm betting Owen is going to lose a head barring extraordinary circumstances here no matter what. That's not the point. "The king is dead; long live the king." Are your loyalties to a dead man? Much less a murdering usurping so and so who shoots unarmed white flag bearing mayors? You think these guys are gonna chose to go die for Owen?

Ask the marshal and guard captain if there is no chance we can turn them to our cause. If they say there is no way, then mow them down. If there is a chance, then give it to them. After all, we're asking them to obey a direct order from their commanding officer, which they have shown they will gladly do by going on a long patrol route. Hell if even 1/3 to 1/2 of them join our side, then that means the other 2/3 to 1/2 are going to have to fight within their own ranks. I fail to see how this is bad for us. Did I mention they'll be coming back tired from that long patrol and thus probably exhausted? What threat are they exactly?

[Maldevious]

I am adopting the term "Owenist," because it is awesome.

Bells ringing, you confer with Arthur and Sir Lope on a next step. Lope offers to send some men to check some hidden entrances to the Keep from the area of the port, which you agree is a fine idea. You say that, given the wounding of the mayor and the situation in the town, it is time to introduce the people to their new Count. Arthur agrees, although he looks practically sick with nervous energy at this point.

As you go, you dispatch Fin to the port, telling him to take a few men, return home, and get as many levy troops here on the longboats as quickly as possible. He nods his head and takes off. You also ask your siege engineers to find the local carpenters and requisition as many nails, saws, boards and hammers as they need, while taking note of whom they take them from. They also get to it, sheepish that they did not think of the plan themselves.

At the square, the Marshall addresses a gathering crowd, explaining that Sir Owen is an imposter, an underhanded rogue for attacking the mayor, and possibly a murderer. The crowd seems to eat this notion up, and you remind yourself to send The Rat something nice. He then goes on to explain that he is here to remove Owen and his treacherous ways in the name of the true Count Foles, motioning to Arthur.

The young man steps out of the crowd nervously, and begins to speak. Given his nervousness, it goes about as well as could be expected. He tells them who he is, and who his father was, and there is a brief murmur among the crowd. When he tries to explain what he is doing, he starts to stumble on his words, but eventually gets out that he is claiming the County in the name of the rightful son of Aaron Foles. There is a brief smattering of applause, some chatting, and a few boos. This has gone on long enough, you decide, and motion for him to finish, which he does.

With that out of the way, you set in for a bit of a wait as the siege equipment is prepared. Idly planning ahead, you ask Lope how likely it is that you'll have to kill those patrols when they return. He is ambivalent. "Many of those men arrived here with Owen... others were former paupers that Owen lavished with a fine salary and housing..." He shrugs. "I think we'd best kill them when they return, lest they come back to bite us later as bandits and brigands."

You nod your head. This day, and the next few, are likely to be quite bloody. You are brooding over this around noon when Lope's men return. They report that most of the hidden entrances are blocked... save for one ancient path. Apparently, Owen does not know his new home well enough yet. What now?

[Origami_Psycho]

Send in assassins in the dead of the night, open up the blocked paths, and then storm the hell outta that keep!
Also, allow Arthur to kill Owen, after he's been disarmed by our men.  Remember, we can not be on the front lines, we're in no condition to be fighting, as such we need to keep Luther and a respectable bodyguard with us, always.

[Gervassen]

Unfortunately, I don't think we have assassins, just a bunch of noisy soldiers. On the bright side, I think we've recovered enough to fight personally in the battles ahead.

Here's my plan for the assault.

Spoiler: Assumptions (click to show/hide)

 
Geography
I'm assuming from things that have been said earlier that there's a gatehouse, a small courtyard with the armoury and other buildings, a curtain wall about this courtyard, and then the Keep proper across the courtyard from the gatehouse. It's a mini-castle, in effect. The tunnel leads to the basement of the Keep.

Forces:

• Our main forces, just under 100 men, comprising the retinues of various lords.
• The Town Guard, which in a town of 3000 might be 75 men, with some ranged capabilities.
• A much larger levy militia that Uriel can summon, but without proper arms to fight. Probably 200-300.
• In three or four days, another 100ish levies from Feroshire.

Enemy Forces:

• Under 50 in the keep, mostly personal retainers of Owen. Some bowmen, some medium infantry, perhaps a few knights.
• About the same amount on patrol, due back in two days.

The Plan

Misdirection: Call up the town militia and deploy them in a siege about the keep with improvised weaponry and, importantly, ladders. They need not be well crafted ladders capable of actually holding a man's weight. Just rope together ordinary ladders, until they seem long enough to scale the walls, and lean them against nearby houses to signal that we will attempt an escalade. They are for show.

Tire them out: During the night, the militia beseiging the Keep wait at campfires. At various times in the night, we blow horns and the militia grab torches and the ladders and line up just outside of bow range on all sides of the Keep, waiting. After fifteen minutes, they stand down. Repeat.

Morning: We trundle the ram out, pushed by the town guards who have rested well elsewhere. Mantlets deploy with guard archers and our regular retinue archers. Concentrate on suppressing the gatehouse while we ram the gates, but scatter mantlets in other places to show that those sides will be contested in the battle. Horns blow, and the weary militia gets into formation once more with ladders on all sides. They may rush forward as if to do an escalade.

The Real Play: All heavy infantry, including us and the other lords, Luther and Uriel's heavy men-at-arms, sneak into the basement of the Keep proper via the secret tunnel as the ram rolls forward and the enemy sees an earnest attack gathering outside. As the ram begins to thud, we gather in the basement and strike up into the Keep interior, take the Great Hall, and assault up the staircases. In the close quarters of the Keep interior, halberds may not have room, but our veteran halberdiers can now follow us through the tunnel and hold the Great Hall against those who try to enter from the courtyard. Our veteran archers can follow behind us and man whatever arrow loops look out on the courtyard and the gatehouse. Take the defenders outside the Keep itself by two directions. We heavies continue assaulting up the staircase, floor by floor, until the Keep is cleared.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Our men alone are worth sparing. To hell with all other men on earth, and that right speedily.

Everyone comes from somewhere. Our men were not always our men; we were once someone else's man. Still are in a sense.

FTFY.

Other prospects for them if Owen dies: offer them some. It's basically how we've gotten everything we have so far -- offering people prospects. What's Justice got to do with it? There isn't any justice here; we aren't having a trial to my knowledge. After reading what's been going on, I'm betting Owen is going to lose a head barring extraordinary circumstances here no matter what. That's not the point. "The king is dead; long live the king." Are your loyalties to a dead man? Much less a murdering usurping so and so who shoots unarmed white flag bearing mayors? You think these guys are gonna chose to go die for Owen?
Ask the marshal and guard captain if there is no chance we can turn them to our cause. If they say there is no way, then mow them down. If there is a chance, then give it to them. After all, we're asking them to obey a direct order from their commanding officer, which they have shown they will gladly do by going on a long patrol route. Hell if even 1/3 to 1/2 of them join our side, then that means the other 2/3 to 1/2 are going to have to fight within their own ranks. I fail to see how this is bad for us. Did I mention they'll be coming back tired from that long patrol and thus probably exhausted? What threat are they exactly?

Agreed. Although the plans are increasingly moot by this point.

Oh, look, update. I'm fine with killing them now.

Gerv's plan sounds good and, more importantly, well-thought-out.

[Gervassen]

Since my plan is seconded, if it has no objections, it can probably go forward next turn. If the ram and welsh cat are expected to be finished by next morning, the attack can happen a whole day before the town guard is due to return. The Feroshire levies can be ignored. They were needed before we found tryrar's secret tunnel. That discovery changes this from frontal bludgeoning to something with far more finesse.

Just a thought, and unrelated to the actual attack plans... Okay, we kill Owen in the heat of battle--not sure about Arthur doing it, but it happens nonetheless. I think we can live with that, even though it destroys my newly-minted term. But there's something that's a bit trickier here. Consider that we're probably going to find his wife, also. She is the true source of his claim. She can wed another noble, any noble, and that noble instantly has the same claim.

Maybe we should let Owen live rather than killing him. There are a variety of medieval punishments that were legally handed out. Castration, for example. We could brand him as a murderer. Literally. On the face. Make him a shamed grotesque that can't draw supporters to his cause. It may be better to leave a shattered man alive, bound in marriage to the real claimant, than risk the girl marrying a powerful and ambitious noble later on. A bit hard-edged, but worth a think.

[Plato Play-Doh]

Unfortunately, I don't think we have assassins, just a bunch of noisy soldiers. On the bright side, I think we've recovered enough to fight personally in the battles ahead.

Here's my plan for the assault.

Spoiler: Assumptions (click to show/hide)

 
Geography
I'm assuming from things that have been said earlier that there's a gatehouse, a small courtyard with the armoury and other buildings, a curtain wall about this courtyard, and then the Keep proper across the courtyard from the gatehouse. It's a mini-castle, in effect. The tunnel leads to the basement of the Keep.

Forces:

• Our main forces, just under 100 men, comprising the retinues of various lords.
• The Town Guard, which in a town of 3000 might be 75 men, with some ranged capabilities.
• A much larger levy militia that Uriel can summon, but without proper arms to fight. Probably 200-300.
• In three or four days, another 100ish levies from Feroshire.

Enemy Forces:

• Under 50 in the keep, mostly personal retainers of Owen. Some bowmen, some medium infantry, perhaps a few knights.
• About the same amount on patrol, due back in two days.

The Plan

Misdirection: Call up the town militia and deploy them in a siege about the keep with improvised weaponry and, importantly, ladders. They need not be well crafted ladders capable of actually holding a man's weight. Just rope together ordinary ladders, until they seem long enough to scale the walls, and lean them against nearby houses to signal that we will attempt an escalade. They are for show.

Tire them out: During the night, the militia beseiging the Keep wait at campfires. At various times in the night, we blow horns and the militia grab torches and the ladders and line up just outside of bow range on all sides of the Keep, waiting. After fifteen minutes, they stand down. Repeat.

Morning: We trundle the ram out, pushed by the town guards who have rested well elsewhere. Mantlets deploy with guard archers and our regular retinue archers. Concentrate on suppressing the gatehouse while we ram the gates, but scatter mantlets in other places to show that those sides will be contested in the battle. Horns blow, and the weary militia gets into formation once more with ladders on all sides. They may rush forward as if to do an escalade.

The Real Play: All heavy infantry, including us and the other lords, Luther and Uriel's heavy men-at-arms, sneak into the basement of the Keep proper via the secret tunnel as the ram rolls forward and the enemy sees an earnest attack gathering outside. As the ram begins to thud, we gather in the basement and strike up into the Keep interior, take the Great Hall, and assault up the staircases. In the close quarters of the Keep interior, halberds may not have room, but our veteran halberdiers can now follow us through the tunnel and hold the doors into the Great Hall from outside. Our veteran archers can follow behind us and man whatever arrow loops look out on the courtyard and the gatehouse. Take the defenders outside the Keep itself by two directions. We heavies continue assaulting up the staircase, floor by floor, until the Keep is cleared.

Since my plan is seconded, if it has no objections, it can probably go forward next turn. If the ram and welsh cat are expected to be finished by next morning, the attack can happen a whole day before the town guard is due to return. The Feroshire levies can be ignored. They were needed before we found tryrar's secret tunnel. That discovery changes this from frontal bludgeoning to something with far more finesse.

Just a thought, and unrelated to the actual attack plans... Okay, we kill Owen in the heat of battle--not sure about Arthur doing it, but it happens nonetheless. I think we can live with that, even though it destroys my newly-minted term. But there's something that's a bit trickier here. Consider that we're probably going to find his wife, also. She is the true source of his claim. She can wed another noble, any noble, and that noble instantly has the same claim.

Maybe we should let Owen live rather than killing him. There are a variety of medieval punishments that were legally handed out. Castration, for example. We could brand him as a murderer. Literally. On the face. Make him a shamed grotesque that can't draw supporters to his cause. It may be better to leave a shattered man alive, bound in marriage to the real claimant, than risk the girl marrying a powerful and ambitious noble later on. A bit hard-edged, but worth a think.

I like these ideas. Nice work, Gerv!